When Forrest is sent to Iran to negotiate in what would become known as the Iran–Contra affair, Wanda is kept on display at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. She would remain there for a long time. Eventually, Forrest and Colonel North organize a clandestine operation to retrieve Wanda in the dead of night, accompanied by little Forrest. They set off an alarm and are surrounded by police, but little Forrest and Wanda escape and the police preoccupy themselves with chasing them: the operation ends a success when the team regroups and escapes in a boxcar full of pigs (which is headed to Oregon).

Wanda's cage at the National Zoo gives her a species name of "Swinus Americanus", which can be interpreted as "American Swine". However, the proper scientific name for a domestic pig is "Sus scrofa domesticus" or "Sus domesticus".